Resources of the UVA Food Collaborative

At the 2011 Morven Summer Institute, a group of students built a vegetable washing station for use in the Morven Kitchen Garden. The project also included the creation of a \"How To Guide\" for anyone interested in building one for themselves. The guide is now posted as a tool on the Farm Hack website – check it out!

As announced by Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, 3rd Ward will open a Culinary Incubator in 2013 with the generous support of the city of Brooklyn and the assistance of the New York Economic Development Corporation.

This website and blog is devoted to strengthening connections from the farm to the table and enhancing Virginia’s overall food system. The social, economic and environmental importance of farming and food is often overlooked and under-appreciated by individuals and communities. With our fast-paced lives and hectic schedules, it is easy to take farming and where food comes from for granted, particularly when we rarely have time to sit down for a meal at a table. Yet, farming and food are fundamental necessities for individuals and communities to thrive socially and economically for the common wealth and common good. In launching this website and blog, we hope to reconnect individuals and communities to farming and food, and highlight the social, environmental and economic importance of these connections.

The Journal only accepts articles from undergraduate students. The Journal considers three types of articles:

Articles that discuss the development of a service-learning project and the impact of the project on the community served;
A case study of a service-learning project;
A reflection on service-learning and the development of personal leadership.

The fair trade certification has entered a period of major change. The recent departure of Fair Trade USA from the international certification system led by Fair Trade International (formerly FLO), and its decision to develop separate US standards that permit certification of plantation-produced coffee, cocoa, and other crops, has thrown the meaning of the US fair trade label into question. The recent appearance of a new certification—The Institute for Marketecology (IMO) “Fair For Life” label—has made the panorama even more complex. These developments follow a decade of struggles within the fair trade movement over the nature of its relationship to large (often transnational) corporate firms, some of which have contributed to the dramatic growth of fair trade sales.

Sugary drink companies speak to children early, often, and when parents are not looking. Sugary drinks are the most unhealthy food product marketed to children and are relentlessly and aggressively targeted toward them. Food marketing to children negatively influences the dietary choices and the health of society's most vulnerable citizens. Given the childhood obesity epidemic at hand, we need meaningful solutions and real change. We're here to give you the FACTS.

FACTS - the Food Advertising to Children and Teens Score - was developed by health researchers at Yale University. Explore the Sugary Drink FACTS website to learn more about sugary drink companies, products, nutrition, marketing techniques, and the science behind the FACTS.

Planning a Thanksgiving menu is a delightful - but potentially daunting - endeavor. So many of our members have told us that they want to have a Slow Food Thanksgiving dinner but need help planning a menu. So here it is!

Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture (BRWIA) is dedicated to strengthening the High Country's local food system by supporting women and their families with resources, education, and skills related to sustainable food and agriculture.

Charlottesville is full of great restaurants, from chains to local favorites. Yet, with so many choices, how is a kid to know what to order? That is where we come in. We have done the research and now present to you menu choices from some of the most popular restaurants in Charlottesville.

This Wiki aims to present a comprehensive guide to all food system and agriculture development–related terms. Taken from its definition listed below, a food system is "a dynamic structure consisting of the production, distribution, acquisition, consumption and disposal of food." Below is a collection of scientific, political, and popular words, terms, and acronyms: all things food systems-related.

Hungry for Change is a six-session discussion course that explores the interconnected nature of food systems and our relationships to them. Each session includes readings, short assignments and accompanying discussion questions. Some sessions also include video clips, podcasts and websites as additional learning tools. Hungry for Change also includes Action Plans, a great way to help participants commit to lasting change. This course provides many opportunities for reflection, engagement and action for those who are Hungry for more.

On Friday, October 14, 2011, at Mills College in Oakland, CA, TEDxFruitvale will bring together farmworkers, farmers, activists, artists, students, professors, filmmakers, and entepreneurs to celebrate the people upon whom we depend to harvest our food. In three sessions, titled Meet, Movement, and Money, 18 speakers will provide a 360-degree view of farmworkers today and throughout history; compare labor’s progress with other social justice movements; and end by discussing fair labor practices from a business standpoint.

October 10, 2011 for the next Politics issue
June 1, 2012 for the Remembering the Civil War issue

We pay $250 for essay-length pieces that we accept
for publication and $100 for shorter works.

The Council of Editors of Learned Journals has called Southern Cultures “indispensable to a number of fields” and “a hallmark of what ambitious journals should be attempting in the 21st century.” We occupy a unique position among publications about the South by targeting both academic readers and educated lay readers.
Our primary objective is to capture the full diversity of the region and to do so thoughtfully and thoroughly. Southern Cultures covers all aspects of the region’s mainstream and marginalized cultures—through interviews, essays, articles, personal reminiscences, poetry, fiction, reviews, and surveys on contemporary trends. We are a peer-reviewed quarterly and welcome well-written submissions year-round from authors, scholars, and anyone else with insights into our region. We are not interested in writing that venerates an old (or new) white South or that promotes a Southern nation or that pines for the days of the Confederacy. The "s" in Southern Cultures is meant to recognize a region of many peoples, histories, memories, and interpretations, and we strive to bring our readers the stories of people of all ethnicities and from all walks of life.

The Food Chapter of the Awesome Foundation is now accepting applications to further food awesomeness in the universe through $1,000 microgrants given out once (or so) a month. Anyone can apply. And we interpret food in its broadest possible way, so use your imagination. The questions are simple and direct.

Blue Ridge Produce in the Virginia Piedmont area aggregates fresh fruit and vegetables grown locally, state-wide and regionally and markets them to wholesale buyers in Washington, DC and throughout the region. We provide growers key services: post-harvest handling training and monitoring, farm pick-up, packing, cooling, marketing and distribution. Blue Ridge Produce strives to build a value-based relationship with growers of all sizes which will help provide the support needed to scale up produce grown in our region. We will strive to source from organic, local and low-spray producers specifically and will offer support toward GAP training in the future. Blue Ridge Produce will expand into growing tomatoes and lettuce year-round in greenhouses at the Willow Run Facility in Elkwood, Virginia.

To shed more light on the impacts of food price spikes, Oxfam has created an interactive map of Food Price Volatility Pressure Points. This map shows the impacts of price spikes in some of the countries where food prices have complicated the lives of poor people and offers a chance to take action on to help address price volatility.

If you're in the business of food...
...someone on FoodHub is waiting to meet you.
FoodHub gathers professional food buyers, wholesale producers, distributors and industry suppliers in one dynamic community.

A homegrown domestic fair trade label that represents the gold standard for social justice in agricultural and food jobs, rigorous third party certification, and a system based on the experiences and input of the farmers, farmworkers and business owners themselves.

Eat Local First is a campaign of Think Local First DC. Think Local First DC is a non-profit organization that works with independent businesses, consumers and policymakers to grow a sustainable local economy in Washington DC.

"This year's conference will concentrate on the important contributions institutions can make in advancing a healthier food system. The conference will highlight successful models of institutional farm projects, food purchasing, farmer training, and community outreach."

The School Food Tour is a 6,000+ mile self-supported bicycle tour that will advocate for healthier school meals and promote cycling for transportation and recreation.

Sara, the School Food 'Spokes'woman, hopes to inspire and energize students and communities to create healthier school environments that support student wellness. She will be conducting engaging classroom sessions, farm visits and community group bike rides all across the country.

"The purpose of this solicitation is to attract full-service grocery stores to Portland communities that are currently underserved, with a focus on areas with lower incomes and greater distance from existing healthful food options. New catalytic developments—such as grocery stores—are a key part of the Neighborhood Economic Development plan, which seeks to revitalize commercial corridors and support neighborhood-serving businesses."

This conference will bring together many of the world’s leading experts on food, including The Prince of Wales, a lifelong environmentalist and organic farmer, Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation,” and Wendell Berry, winner of The National Humanities Medal. How is American and international food production changing to respond to growing demand from consumers for healthier and more natural food? Experts from some of world’s biggest food companies, academia and nonprofits discuss trends in agriculture and consumer behavior that is shaping the future of food.

Forty years after the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and twenty years after the first “Earth Summit” (UN Conference and Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the world community will meet again, to review progresses and outline the future steps we need to take towards a more sustainable world. The 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as “Rio+20”, will be a historical event.

Between hot temperatures, low rainfall, and extreme weather in the fall, last year stood out as an intense growing season for gardeners. Despite these obstacles, many participating gardeners recorded high yields from their intensively grown raised-bed garden plots. Each harvest logbook tells a story, and pooling them together brings us a greater narrative about food in NYC’s community gardens.

This map, from Chartbins, shows daily worldwide consumption—broken down by calories (shown in the map above) and by carbohydrates, fats and proteins (in the interactive version here)—for individuals in the total population. The world average clocks in at 2,780 calories per person per day, ranging from 3,420 calories in developed nations (dark green) to 1,820 calories in central Africa (light purple).

Starting your own farm business offers rewards that range from being your own boss, to working at something you enjoy, to earning income for yourself. A successful farm operation requires careful planning and decision-making, and most importantly, a sound business plan to guide you through the initial start-up years. This guide contains information about issues to consider before starting a farming operation with links to full-text guides on how to start a farm business, and develop business and marketing plans. It also contains information about funding sources for beginning farmers, training, technical assistance contacts, organizations with resources and programs for beginning and experienced farmers, and more.

To promote research and to develop and communicate information about the complex interrelationships among diet, food production, environment and human health; to advance an ecological perspective in reducing threats to the health of the public; and to promote policies that protect health, the global environment and the ability to sustain life for future generations.

That some members of Congress are farmers is hardly new. Many of the Founding Fathers worked the land. But as the industrial age transformed America’s agrarian society and technology made it possible for fewer farmers to grow more crops on more land, the number of lawmakers actively engaged in agriculture dropped sharply.

We don’t have a firm count of how many farmers are serving in the current Congress, but we do know, based on a recent analysis of the Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database, that 23 of them, or their family members, signed up for taxpayer-funded farm subsidy payments between 1995 and 2009.

The Grow Montana coalition seeks seven full-time AmeriCorps VISTA FoodCorps members to build and tend school gardens, help cafeterias serve locally-grown meals, and educate students about how and why to eat healthy, locally-grown food. A partnership between Grow Montana, Montana Campus Compact, and Communities in Action, the FoodCorps team will benefit from the support of a diverse network of statewide leaders experienced in fighting poverty and building community-based food systems.

On Monday, April 11th from 2:00-3:30 EST, the International Food Information Council Foundation and the Council on Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics (C-FARE) will host a webinar discussing the definition of “local” foods; the nutritional, economic and social tradeoffs of local versus other foods; and consumer insights regarding local foods.

This symposium is a two-day gathering of teachers, students, food service directors, sustainability coordinators, farmers, and community organizers to advance food system literacy in schools and communities around the nation. The event will provide participants with the chance to discuss specific opportunities, challenges, and solutions during facilitated workshops and presentations.

Learn about and share best practices with featured speakers from schools and organizations, as well as community partners in school food endeavors. Return to your campus with renewed energy and new ideas to move your school forward.

Grown in the City has launched an “Interactive Food Sovereignty Ordinance Map” to track food sovereignty ordinances across the United States, following the unanimous passage of the first ordinance in Sedgwick, Maine. The legality of the ordinance at the State and federal level has not yet been determined, but it has been a symbolic victory for those who support local, sustainable food systems guided by completely free markets.

Do you know of a community with a local food sovereignty ordinance? Let us know at by filling out the Food Sovereignty Database Form and we’ll add it to the map.

Our monthly NGFN interactive webinars give you the opportunity to learn and connect with on-the-ground practitioners and experts. Below you'll find archives of past webinars available for viewing, and information and registration for upcoming webinars.

Please note: NGFN webinars take place the third Thursday of each month, 3:30-4:45 ET (unless otherwise noted).

Have a suggestion for an NGFN webinar topic?
Email us at contact@ngfn.org

Our mission is to ensure access to healthy food and to promote the vitality of agriculture today and for future generations. We do this through integrative research, education, communication and early action on big, emerging issues.

Our vision is a food and agricultural system that:

is innovative, adaptive and profitable
provides healthy food for everyone
promotes prosperity and equity for people working in agriculture and the food system and their communities
improves the environment and human health
builds awareness and understanding of the food system
engages public participation in policy decisions affecting food and agriculture

The Rudd Center Seminar Series welcomes speakers from different disciplines to present and discuss their work and its implications for the study of obesity and food policy. The Rudd Center is interdisciplinary, and our meetings are attended by a diverse group representing psychology, public health, law, medicine, nursing, public policy, and other fields. Our meetings are open to the public, and all are invited to attend.

On January 27, 2011 the USDA announced its approval to allow the completely unregulated release of Monsanto’s genetically engineered "RoundUp Ready" Alfalfa (RRA), even after being made aware of compelling initial research indicating serious threats to animal, environmental and human health. Aside from health consequences, this will significantly impact rural economies across the country as the genetic contamination of non-RoundUp Ready (RR) crops (also referred to as GMO and transgenic crops) will result in the loss of organic and biodynamic certification and lost markets even for non-GMO conventional growers. It is also feared that this will inflict irreparable damage to the remaining honeybee population. Once broadly released it will be impossible to contain or remove from the environment.

Currently, there are no requirements to label GMO ingredients in the United States.

This easy-to-use map lets you report your position on this matter. If you are a concerned organic or non-GMO conventional grower, an eater, a parent, an organic dairy farmer, Oprah, an environmentalist, a veterinarian, a pet owner... please get on the map! Tell your friends, Together, we are smarter and stronger. Visualize public opinion with us.

The PB&J Fund connects Charlottesville youth with the resources and knowledge necessary to help develop a healthy diet. By working with community partners to provide healthy meals and teach cooking habits, it aims to address kids' nutritional needs at each stage of development. The PB&J Fund was created in the belief that a healthy diet should be easily accessible to all kids, just like the most famous and basic childhood food of peanut butter and jelly.

FoodShare’s ‘Great Big Crunch’ invites students and teachers to learn about healthy eating and local and global food systems while following the journey from the apple seed, to the harvest, to the market, to the core.

It's a day of apple education through loads of fun activities, ending with a synchronized apple crunch at 2:30pm. In 2010 more than 64,000 crunched with us!

Groundswell's New Farmer Training Program is a hands-on training program for serious aspiring farmers and market gardeners. Beginning April 15 and running through November 15, the program provides 100 hours of classroom training, hands-on workshops, farm visits, and supervised work experience on sustainable farms. Groundswell is committed to the vision of a regionally self-reliant food system that provides good food and economic opportunities for everyone. Minority, new immigrant and limited-resource trainees are especially encouraged to apply.

Agroecology, with its emphasis on biological systems, is an important part of the growing effort to make human activities compatible with natural ecosystems. Whereas modern education teaches a specialized, urban curriculum preparing youth for upward mobileity, it ignores the cultural and practical knowledge needed for a successful, post-fossil-fuel world.

The NOFA-NY Farm Apprenticeship Program connects experienced farmers with individuals interested in learning how to start and run a farm. The program provides needed enrichment and support while letting the apprentice and experienced farmer select and manage their experience. Aspiring farmers can start their farm-based learning with one of the exciting apprenticeship opportunities that our host farms have to offer. Experienced farmers who want to teach eager learners to farm while gaining motivated individuals for farm work have the chance to do that through advertising their apprenticeship opportunity on our database.

thefoodtimes is a public service project that seeks to transform our understanding of the modern food system. By gathering and distilling existing food news and information, it links the dinner on our plates to our bodies, our communities, the economy and the health of the world we leave to our children.

To help solve our nation’s many health, social, economic and environmental challenges, the nation needs a comprehensive, health-focused food system that addresses the goals of hunger and disease reduction, local and family farm viability, food affordability and accessibility, environmental protection, land use planning, regional resilience, and social justice.

Good policy decisions are made through clear, transparent, and deliberative decision-making processes that involve the individuals and communities they affect. It is important that rural, urban, and suburban communities, all have a voice in determining the policies that directly affect their economic and social well-being.

Our purpose in establishing these principles is to provide a framework of values that will help guide decisions by our elected officials. These principles are meant to provide guidance for the development of policies, regulations, programs, funding opportunities, technical support and research priorities for a healthy and sustainable food system supported by the 2012 Farm Bill.

Our home is your home, so please come in and look around. This new site contains all of the information from our old website, but with many additions and updates. Check out our new farming technique clips in the Video Mentors gallery. Visit the Who Can Help Me? map to locate organizations near you. And much more.

This Conference addresses the changing legal landscape of employee rights resulting from the passage of the historic 2010 Food Safety Modernization Act. Among other monumental reforms, the Act establishes whistleblower protections for employees of entities involved in the manufacturing, processing, packing, transporting, distribution, reception, holding, or importation of food who provide information relating to any violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act – the act that gives the FDA most of its regulatory power. In addition to the Food Modernization Act, Conference panels and workshops will address food issues as varied as workers’ rights, humane handling, food importation, and the use of food additives.

Just a few short miles from downtown Washington, DC, an exciting and innovative new farming and food project is taking root. Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture is dedicated to growing a sustainable food system and culture in the Washington, DC area and creating a highly visible rallying point and collaborative space for the many local efforts and initiatives around better food. Our mission is to have a positive impact on the health of eaters throughout the region by combining education about good food and its sources with better logistical connections between the best local farms and the urban and suburban core of Washington, DC and surrounding areas.

We've chosen to partner with the Global Animal Partnership to encourage better animal welfare practices. In fact, we're leading the industry in animal welfare!

The Global Animal Partnership is a non-profit organization dedicated to continually improving the lives of farm animals raised for meat. They have developed the 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating™ that rates how pigs, chickens and cattle are raised. Ratings for other species (turkeys, lamb, and others) are in development, so stay tuned.

It's important to note that getting to Step 1 is a huge accomplishment in the industry! The Step-rated farms and ranchers aren't the same folks who provide meat to most conventional markets. The Step ratings are assigned by third-party certifiers using auditors trained by the Global Animal Partnership.

Look for this rating system when you choose our beef, pork or chicken. It's your way of knowing how the animals were raised for the meat you are buying.

You Are What You Eat is a series of portraits made by examining the interiors of refrigerators in homes across the United States.

For three years I traveled around the country exploring food issues. The more time I spent speaking and listening to individual stories, the more I began to think about the foods we consume and the effects they have on us as individuals and communities.

An intense curiosity and questions about stewardship led me to begin to make these unconventional portraits. A refrigerator is both a private and a shared space. One person likened the question, “May I photograph the interior of your fridge?” to asking someone to pose nude for the camera.

These are portraits of the rich and the poor. Vegetarians, Republicans, members of the NRA, those left out, the under appreciated, former soldiers in Hitler’s SS, dreamers, and so much more. We never know the full story of one’s life.

My hope is that we will think deeply about how we care.

How we care for our bodies. How we care for others. And how we care for the land.

Open Source Ecology is a movement dedicated to the collaborative development of tools for replicable, open source, modern off-grid "resilient communities." By using permaculture and digital fabrication together to provide for basic needs and open source methodology to allow low cost replication of the entire operation, we hope to empower anyone who desires to move beyond the struggle for survival and "evolve to freedom."

The National Young Farmers' Coalition is a new organization, created by and for young and beginning farmers in the United States. It was unofficially launched at the 2009 Young Farmer Conference at the Stone Barns Center for Agriculture in Tarrytown, NY. Their site has a regular blog and FarmHack, a DIY blog which serves as a resource for farmers who embrace the long-standing farm traditions of tinkering, inventing, fabricating, tweaking, and fixing things that they broke.

TED Talks offers something intelligent and educational for almost any audience imaginable, and ardent fans of gustatory pleasures big and small are no exception. When it comes to food, the idea depository features lectures from a wide variety of experts weighing in on everything from environmental concerns to biology to ethics to sociology to economics and all that sits between. All of these lectures cater to the passionate foodie who pines to learn all he or she can about the meals in front of them. For them, taste comprises only a fraction of the appeal, and TED will not disappoint.

The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service "works to maintain a current listing of farmers markets throughout the United States....A spreadsheet of the geographic coordinates of farmers market locations in the U.S. is also available. Market information included in the farmers market database is voluntary and self-reported to AMS from market managers, state market representatives, state associations, and consumers. The farmers market database is updated on an on-going basis. To add or change market information, please contact the AMS Marketing Services Division." [Nov. 16, 2010]

The Nourish Middle School Curriculum Guide offers a rich set of resources to open a meaningful conversation about food and sustainability. Beautifully designed and brimming with big ideas, the materials contain a viewing guide, six learning activities, action projects, student handouts, suggested resources, and a glossary.

Nominations are now open for NRDC’s third annual Growing Green Awards to honor farmers, business leaders and promoters of sustainable food. Interested in nominating yourself or another sustainable food hero for NRDC's 2011 Growing Green Awards? Submit your nomination by December 10, 2010!

From the website: "Join Phil Lempert on his public television special as he follows his Baltimore breakfast from its source to his plate. Then continue the journey by logging on to PhilsFoodSense.org, where we go deeper into the complex issues surrounding every food in Phil’s breakfast. Ask questions and learn more about food production, food safety, food sustainability, and how you can take action to create a more sustainable future."

The Living Energy Farm is a project to build a community, education center, and farm that demonstrates that a fulfilling life is possible without the use of any fossil fuel. Our mission is to serve as an example and actively promote lifestyles and technologies that are truly sustainable, and to make these sustainable technologies accessible to all persons regardless of their income or social position.

The Urban Planning Food Systems class has made it a point to post the student work every year so that it is accessible to later classes and the community. Are other food classes doing the same? I think it would be great if we could post students' final projects here so that other classes can review and begin to build off of previously done work.

An amazing resource for class and otherwise, this dozens-long set of broadcasts (#69 is the most recent) highlights "innovations in local food systems and the entrepreneurs dedicated to local food." The most recent four episodes are about "Local Food at the UVa Medical Ctr." Many others spotlight work down by a list of other Food Collaborative members too.

An impressive event in February 2011. Too far for travel from Virginia, but the site provides a good deal of info and resources. "Food Justice," the site says, "explores the history, present and future of the food system." In part, the conference will examine the meaning and tensions between the three conference concepts: community, equity and sustainability.